WikiIslam
WikiIslam is an anti-Muslim and anti-Islam wiki. The website was founded by Ali Sina in 2006. Registered users may modify and edit its content. In 2015, the website was acquired by the Ex-Muslims of North America It underwent a major revision in 2020, and currently presents itself as a critical encyclopedia focused on Islam.
Overview
The website was registered on October 27, 2005 and launched on September 4, 2006. It was founded by Ali Sina, an Iranian-born Canadian ex-Muslim, and originally maintained by his organization, Faith Freedom International, part of the counter-jihad network. As of 2013, among the site's aim was to act in defence against a perceived "global threat" of Muslims and Islam; the site described its purpose as "collect facts relating to the criticism of Islam from valid Islamic sources" without the effect of " censorship" that is common in Wikipedia. It rejected concerns of Islamophobia by arguing that Islam has been proved to be a "dangerous ideology".As a "community-edited website", the wiki was set to be edited and modified by approved netizens., information on internal contradictions in the Quran, persecution of non-Muslims and ex-Muslims, follies of Muhammad etc. were held; a narrow focus is maintained on "violence, sexuality and gender conflicts". Also as of 2018, apostasy testimonies were featured too and the site held a list of 101 provocative questions which are to be asked of any Muslim to prove that Islam is not a "true religion," running in tune with the site's active encouragement to criticize Muslims. The same year, WikiIslam was noted to feature slurs about Muhammad. Translations of content into multiple languages are available. In December 2015, the Ex-Muslims of North America, a secularist organization, took ownership and operation of the site.
Following a major revision around 2020, a 2023 study found that WikiIslam articles generally present how Muslim scholars have historically addressed specific questions and that internal disagreements among scholars are often included. However, contemporary discussions and progressive interpretations of controversial topics are rarely represented.
Reception
In 2007, Göran Larsson, Professor of Religious Studies at University of Gothenburg, argued that WikiIslam is an Islamophobic web portal and that the stories on WikiIslam were selected only to show that Muslims are "ignorant, backward or even stupid". In a 2014 survey of "anti-Muslim websites", Larsson profiled WikiIslam's apparent aim as "present Islamic history, theology and practitioners in a way which leaves the reader with an exceedingly negative image of the faith". He repeated his position in 2018, citing WikiIslam as an example of an "anti-Muslim webpage."In 2013, Daniel Enstedt and Larsson wrote that the website has been "often perceived as being anti-Muslim, if not Islamophobic," describing the then-present content on WikiIslam as part of a "negative and biased" representation of Islam that could "easily be turned into an important weapon in the hands of those who want to express anti-Muslim feelings"; the site propagated "an Islamophobic world view that present Islam and Muslims as diametrically opposite to all others." Both Enstedt and Larrson have contended WikiIslam's selection and presentation of Islamic topics to be "very one-dimensional" with "alternative interpretations seldom represented".
In 2019, Asma Uddin, an advisor on religious liberty to the OSCE and a fellow at the Aspen Institute, reiterated WikiIslam to be a "rampantly anti-Muslim website". The same year, Syaza Shukri, Professor of Political Sciences at International Islamic University Malaysia, deemed the lack of positive content on WikiIslam to demonstrate a "definite agenda": the promotion of a monolithic version of Islam—violent, oppressive, and unrepresentative of "how a majority of Muslims view their religion". Rabia Kamal, a cultural anthropologist based at University of San Francisco, finds WikiIslam to be of the many Islamophobic websites dedicated to "surveillance" of Islam and Muslims.
In a 2023 content analysis, Edin Kozaric of Oslo Metropolitan University and Torkel Brekke of MF Norwegian School of Theology examined WikiIslam using a framework they termed the "scientification of Islamophobia," referring to how prejudice against Muslims can gain credibility through academic-style referencing and terminology. Their overall assessment was that the information WikiIslam presents about Islam is far from neutral: the site's topic selection is biased, and it continues to have hardly any information presenting Muslims positively or neutrally. Because WikiIslam's articles often present conflicting interpretations, they concluded it would be wrong to characterize WikiIslam as entirely Islamophobic. However, the site does not meet the standards set out in its vision document. Their primary concern was that WikiIslam positions itself as an objective encyclopedia while failing to acknowledge how its content is used elsewhere; their backlink analysis found that far-right websites such as Breitbart regularly cited WikiIslam articles to support anti-Muslim arguments.